Triple killer who murdered mother and two children by setting fire to flat jailed
Neighbour Jamie Barrow, who ignored victims’ screams, handed life term with minimum of 44 years
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A man who murdered a mother and her two young daughters by pouring petrol through their letterbox and setting fire to their flat has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 44 years.
Fatimah and Naeemah Drammeh, aged three and one, died during the blaze while Fatoumatta Hydara, 28, died two days later in hospital from smoke inhalation.
Using petrol from his motorbike, neighbour Jamie Barrow set the flat on fire during the early hours of 20 November, then “walked casually away” while ignoring the screams of his victims.
The judge at Nottingham Crown Court, Mrs Justice Tipples, told Barrow as she sentenced him: “You were well aware of what you were doing and I am quite sure from what you did that you wanted to kill Mrs Hydara and her children.
“You were very angry, but it is only you who knows why you did this.”
As Barrow was being taken down after hearing his sentence, people in the public gallery shouted “good” and “they should hang you”.
The judge said Barrow had known the three were all home, asleep, and he knew they “would have no chance whatsoever”.
“Seconds after you lit the fire you heard the fire alarm in the flat go off. You did nothing.
“Seconds after that you heard Fatoumatta screaming from the flat. You did nothing.
“Rather, you stood and watched the fire take hold, and you stood there watching the fire develop and spread for five minutes, which was an enormous length of time in the circumstances.”
Jurors had heard that Barrow, 31, had a “grievance” over rubbish left in an alleyway outside their flats in Fairisle Close in the city.
After the fire, he called Nottingham City Council to ask whether it would compensate him for belongings damaged by smoke.
Barrow had drunk several cans of lager in the hours before lighting the fire and was later seen on CCTV walking his dog.
Mrs Justice Tipples said: “Fatoumatta Hydara was a young woman full of compassion and love.
“She was a caring and devoted daughter, wife, mother, sister and friend.
“She was 28, married to Aboubacarr Drammeh and the mother of two beautiful little girls, Fatimah who was three, and Naeemah who was one.
“Their short lives were full of joy and happiness, and they brought joy and happiness to all those who knew and met them.”
She later said: “The impact on Aboubacarr has been devastating. His loss has been immeasurable, yet his dignity throughout this trial and in this court today has been truly remarkable.
“Likewise, Fatoumatta’s mother, Aminata Dibba, has said Fatoumatta was a light for her, and now she is gone, her world is dark and empty.”
Christopher Henley KC, on Barrow’s behalf, said: “Jamie Barrow is realistic that anything I say on his behalf about his remorse and his regret will sound pretty hollow and will provide precious little, if any, comfort to anyone who loved Fatoumatta Hydara, Fatimah Drammeh and Naeemah Drammeh.”
“Jamie Barrow’s focus was principally on himself, his own struggles. His mental health was in crisis – it had been in the days following the time he spent with his son.”
However, on Tuesday he was convicted of murder after almost seven hours of deliberations, while the victims’ family wept in court.
Mrs Hydara’s husband and the children’s father, Aboubacarr Drammeh, was in America at the time of the fire, and had to identify his children’s bodies on his 40th birthday. He described his two daughters as “two angels who deserved a beautiful childhood and a full life”, while Mrs Hydara had a “pure heart”.
Speaking of the guilt he felt, he said: “I was hopeless, and I was left helpless, because I didn’t have a family, and it was the people who mattered most to me. Since then, it has been a downward plunge into darkness and the unknown.
“It was unthinkable, it was unplanned, and I wish this on no one else, including you. Two little angels, their lifeless bodies lying next to each other. I held their whole hands. I wished I could switch with them.
“I was not there, I should have been. I had a responsibility as a father and a husband to protect, that was my basic responsibility. I make no excuses.”
He added that Barrow’s actions were “utterly heartless and cruel” and had caused “multi-generational trauma” to all of their loved ones.
Looking towards the defendant, he said: “Your impact is infinite, it is immeasurable, it is innumerable. I cannot quantify the impact of your actions.”
“I don’t know why (you did it). Perhaps what you said is the real story, but we will never know why.”
Mrs Justice Tipples told Barrow: “I do not accept that you have shown any genuine remorse for what you have done.”